Educator ripped for her book criticizing public schools

Education official's book attackedDunbar calls public education a 'tool of perversion'

GARY SCHARRER, Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

Published 6:30 am, Friday, December 5, 2008

Photo: Kevin Fujii, CHRONICLE FILE

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Cynthia Dunbar says, "I don't think most people in churches are aware of the venom against Christian America."

Cynthia Dunbar says, "I don't think most people in churches are aware of the venom against Christian America."

Photo: Kevin Fujii, CHRONICLE FILE

Educator ripped for her book criticizing public schools

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AUSTIN — A member of the State Board of Education is drawing fire from a watchdog group because of her critical views on public education in a new book she has written that advocates more Christianity in the public square.

In her book, One Nation Under God, Dunbar argues that the country's founding fathers created "an emphatically Christian government" and believed that government should be guided by a "biblical litmus test."

Dunbar endorses a belief system requiring "any person desiring to govern have a sincere knowledge and appreciation for the Word of God in order to rightly govern."

She calls public education a "subtly deceptive tool of perversion." The establishment of public schools is unconstitutional and even "tyrannical," she writes in the book, because it threatens the authority of families, granted by God through Scripture, to direct the instruction of their children.

Her book was not written for the general public, said Dunbar, whose 16-county area includes Fort Bend and Brazoria counties and part of Travis County.

"It's mainly an educational tool to the body of Christ," Dunbar said, adding that Christians appear to be targeted once they become active politically.

"I don't think most people in the churches are aware of the venom against Christian America," she said. "So, it's more of a wake-up call to be informed, to be involved. They are fine with the body of Christ as long as we stay hidden in our four walls of the church, sitting quietly in our pews.

"But if we become civically involved or active in public policy issues, then we're going to be shot down," Dunbar said.

Dunbar created controversy last month after predicting that Barack Obama would impose martial law if he were elected president in a column she wrote for a Christian publication.

Dunbar, who has home-schooled her children and sent them to private schools, questions the constitutionality of public schools and believes that "the underlying authority for our constitutional form of government stems directly from biblical precedents."

In a phone interview, Dunbar said she does not oppose public education, adding that it would be impossible to eliminate public schools.

"We have to work under the current framework," she said.

But she prefers more competition for public schools in the form of additional charter schools and providing parents more choices on where to educate their children.

Dunbar should have been more honest with voters when she ran for the board two years ago, said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which supports public education, religious freedom and individual liberties.

"A fire chief wouldn't knowingly hire an arsonist in the department," she said. "It's just as hard to imagine many voters knowingly supporting for the State Board of Education an extremist who despises the public schools nearly everybody's kids except her own attend."

Dunbar said she made her positions known during her campaign and carried every county.

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"The fact that the Texas Freedom Network is diametrically opposed to my positions is not anything that is shocking to me, nor is it upsetting to me," she said.